The Arecibo Observatory telescope collapses in Puerto Rico months after the cables snap

A huge Arecibo radio telescope already damaged in Puerto Rico completely collapsed after its 900-tonne receiving platform fell onto the reflector dish below.

The telescope has played a key role in astronomical discoveries for over half a century and entered popular culture with appearances in Hollywood films such as GoldenEye and Contact.

The US National Science Foundation (NSF) previously announced that the Arecibo Observatory would be closed.

An auxiliary cable snapped in August, causing a large gash in the 305-meter-wide dish and damaging the receiver platform that hung above it.

Then a main cable broke in early November.

‘A huge loss’

The collapse stunned many scientists who had relied on what had been the largest radio telescope in the world.

“It sounded like a rumble. I knew exactly what it was,” said Jonathan Friedman, who worked for 26 years as an associate researcher at the observatory and still lives near it.

Dr. Friedman ran up a small hill near his home and confirmed his suspicions: A cloud of dust hovered in the air where the facility once stood, demolishing the hopes of some scientists that the telescope could somehow be repaired.

“It’s a huge loss,” said Carmen Pantoja, an astronomer and professor at the University of Puerto Rico who used the telescope for her doctorate.

“It was a chapter in my life.”

Scientists around the world had asked US officials and others to reverse the NSF’s decision to close the observatory.

The NSF said at the time it intended to finally reopen the visitor center and restore operations at the observatory’s remaining assets.

The telescope was built in the 1960s with money from the US Department of Defense in the midst of a push to develop anti-ballistic missile defenses.

It had endured hurricanes, tropical humidity and a recent series of earthquakes in its 57 years of operation.

The telescope was used to track asteroids on a path to Earth, conduct research that led to a Nobel Prize, and determine if a planet is potentially habitable.

Students mourn the end of the telescope

The telescope also served as a training ground for graduate students and attracted around 90,000 visitors a year.

“I’m one of those students who visited it as a young man and got inspired,” said Abel Méndez, professor of physics and astrobiology at the University of Puerto Rico in Arecibo who used the telescope for research.

The last time he used the telescope was on August 6, just days before a socket holding the auxiliary cable snapped failed in what experts believe may be a manufacturing error.

NSF, owner of the observatory, said crews who evaluated the facility after the first crash determined that the remaining cables could carry the additional weight.

But on November 6 another cable broke.

Loading

A spokesperson for the observatory said there will be no immediate comment and a spokesperson for the University of Central Florida did not respond to requests for comment.

Scientists used the telescope to study pulsars to detect gravitational waves and to search for neutral hydrogen, which can reveal how certain cosmic structures are formed.

About 250 scientists around the world had used the observatory when it closed in August, including Mr. Méndez, who was studying the stars for habitable planets.

“I’m trying to recover,” he said.

“I’m still very impressed.”

AP